Google Photos App bug - can't delete from microSD card?

[tiredteddybear]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing this in 2020.

Let me try to be concise. Today I was trying to delete some photos and out of the blue, the Google Photos app told me "Photos doesn't have access to delete items on your SD card. Go to the Gallery app to continue deleting." Which is funny, because as far as I'm aware, the Gallery app and Google Photos are one and the same. (Tapping the "Launch Gallery" panel just takes me back to the same page.)

At first it seemed like the issue lied with my SanDisk 32 GB microSD card. So I actually went out to buy a new Infinitive 16 GB microSD card and was sure to format it. The card itself seems to be working now, but I'm still getting the same issue from Google Photos unless I revert the app to the factory version (On my phone, 1.24.0.127982639). Installing the latest update (4.34.0.288795270) makes the issue rear its ugly little head again.

Information:
- My phone is an LG X Power.
- My phone is running Marshmallow 6.0.1.
- I have formatted the card. This doesn't help.
- The card is formatted as external storage. As far as I can tell, there's no option to change it to "portable" or "internal" storage.
- I have ensured it isn't the card. I bought a brand new one and it went straight in the phone. The error persists.
- I have cleared the cache. It doesn't work.
- I have ensured Photos has access to my SD card.

At this point I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to have to use the factory version of Photos. I honestly just want to know, is anyone else having this issue with the Photos app and their SD card? Is it just me?

Edit - Google Photos was last updated Jan 9 2020 so that probably explains what's wrong. It has to be some sort of bug on Google's end.

 

[anon(10614692)]

Google Photos and Gallery are different apps. I have a Samsung tablet on 6.01 and have to delete from the gallery app

 

[tiredteddybear]

How do I get the Google Gallery app that will work in conjunction with Photos? I've never had a separate Gallery app in all the time I've had this phone. I got this phone 4 years ago and I've been able to use Photos just fine for browsing my photos and deleting them. This issue cropped up just today.

Edit - It looks like Jan 9 2020 was the most recent Google Photos update. It has to be a bug of some sort on Google's end. Looks like I'm stuck with the stock version until they release a fix.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Which phone do you have? Is the card formatted as Internal Storage or Portable Storage?

 

[tiredteddybear]

Welcome to Android Central! Which phone do you have? Is the card formatted as Internal Storage or Portable Storage?

Information:
- My phone is an LG X Power.
- My phone is running Marshmallow 6.0.1.
- I have formatted the card. This doesn't help.
- The card is formatted as external storage. As far as I can tell, there's no option to change it to "portable" or "internal" storage.
- I have ensured it isn't the card. I bought a brand new one and it went straight in the phone. The error persists.
- I have cleared the cache. It doesn't work.
- I have ensured Photos has access to my SD card.

if you check the recent reviews on the google photos app, others have the same issue so this has to be a bug on google's end. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.photos&hl=en_US

 

[B. Diddy]

It might be a Marshmallow bug. I tried it on my Lenovo Tab 4 8 running Oreo 8.1, and Google Photos can access the SD card without issue. I was trying to figure out if it's an issue similar to KitKat, where SD cards were really locked down, and data on the card could only be accessed by the apps that put the data there in the first place -- but I couldn't find anything definitive about that.